openingReception

“Notes on Solidarity: Tricontinentalism in Print” Exhibition Opening Reception

Thu, Sep 12, 2019

6:00 PM–8:00 PM

The James Gallery

Join us for the exhibition reception of Notes on Solidarity: Tricontinentalism in Printin the James Gallery on Thursday, September 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Revisiting a chapter of the anti-colonial struggles that unfolded after World War Two, Notes on Solidarity considers the role that printed materials played in the practice of Tricontinentalism. A political project born of the mid-1960s, Tricontinentalism proposed a radical alliance between the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America in efforts to resist imperialism. The subject of this exhibition is how that proposition became the shared basis for a thriving graphic production by self-determination movements from Havana to Hanoi during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Striking, emotionally persuasive, and highly mobile, printed materials of all kinds assisted in visualizing and spreading around the world a message of solidarity in resistance.

The exhibition traces the development of a distinct body of graphic work that promoted solidarity between the peoples of the so-called Tricontinental, united in opposition to imperialism. While mapping how the message of Tricontinental solidarity circulated through print, the exhibition also asks after the particular qualities of print that made it so effective at carrying this revolutionary discourse through the world. Assembling posters and magazines, illustrated books, postcards, and newspapers issued in the swell of Tricontinentalist feeling, Notes on Solidarity explores a moment when the project of anti-colonialism and practice of visual production came into close alignment; when printmaking and solidarity were one.

The exhibition comprises examples drawn from international collections of graphic work. Featured artists and organizations include the Organization of Solidarity of the People of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL),René Mederos, the Comité des 3 continents, Peoples Press and Jane Norling, Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party, Malaquías Montoya, Rupert García, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), Marc Rudin, Ismail Shammout, and Kameel Hawa.

The exhibition is curated by Debra Lennard, Curatorial Fellow at the James Gallery and doctoral candidate in the PhD Program in Art History at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Notes on Solidarity: Tricontinentalism in Print is presented in cooperation with Interference Archive, Brooklyn. Thanks to the PhD program in Art History. The curatorial fellowship and exhibition is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.